Some might find local SEO for lawyers a slight­ly less crit­i­cal seg­ment of their over­all mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy; how­ev­er, local SEO for law firms is a cru­cial com­po­nent of any well-thought-out mar­ket­ing plan. 

It has been long estab­lished that prospec­tive clients main­ly turn to search engines to research law firms and indi­vid­ual attor­neys when they need legal help. Online search has been rel­e­vant for those look­ing for legal rep­re­sen­ta­tives, and from this aspect, local SEO ser­vices for law firms is a top­ic that all attor­neys should explore deeper. 

In this arti­cle, the experts at Rosy Strate­gies will explain how local SEO for attor­neys can help them induce their online traf­fic and achieve offline growth. 

Local SEO for Lawyers: What is It? 

Local SEO is basi­cal­ly opti­miz­ing your site and con­tent for search engines with a focus on your local area. Sim­ply put, you are avail­able to those who are in need of legal help or look­ing for legal infor­ma­tion in your area. It’s sim­i­lar to the “gas sta­tion” or “restau­rant near me” search queries that you will often find your­self typ­ing into the search bar. Local SEO for lawyers fol­lows the same anal­o­gy but will be a bit dif­fer­ent and a bit more com­plex (like “immi­gra­tion” or “divorce lawyer near me”). 

Local search­es may also trig­ger maps, mean­ing that the actu­al phys­i­cal loca­tion of these prac­tices will also come into focus. Attor­neys might need to think about a wide range of geolo­cal key­words and phras­es that will help with their local SEO efforts (think, “lawyers in Mia­mi,” “divorce lawyers Mia­mi,” and so on).

Local SEO for lawyers will also include using Google’s local search pack, a fea­ture that will show at the top of the SERPs in local search­es. For exam­ple, if you type “immi­gra­tion lawyers near me,” you will see the top results show­cas­ing the most opti­mized options in your local area. 

Rel­e­vance to search queries, reviews, and user prox­im­i­ty all affect the rank­ings on the local search pack, so to get the most out of it, attor­neys should ensure that: 

  • Their site is opti­mized for local queries
  • They have a cohe­sive pres­ence on all direc­to­ries and local websites
  • Focus­ing on those direc­to­ries and oth­er sites with a pres­ence for your spe­cif­ic loca­tion and prac­tice area. 

Laptop Computer With Magnifying Glass, Concept of Search.

Getting Started with Local SEO for Attorneys

Below are only a few excel­lent tips to help you get the most out of your local SEO efforts.

Google Local Pack and Google Business Profiles

The Google Busi­ness Pro­file (GBP) is a vital tool for local busi­ness­es, includ­ing law firms, to pro­vide essen­tial infor­ma­tion about them­selves to Google. By uti­liz­ing this plat­form, busi­ness­es can gain vis­i­bil­i­ty on Google Maps and Google Search. A GBP list­ing is essen­tial­ly a ded­i­cat­ed busi­ness page that includes the busi­ness name, address, and phone num­ber. Google uses this infor­ma­tion to dis­play rel­e­vant details to indi­vid­u­als search­ing for local lawyers. For a com­pre­hen­sive guide on how to rep­re­sent your busi­ness effec­tive­ly on Google, you can refer to the com­plete documentation.

In terms of local SEO for lawyers, Google relies on the infor­ma­tion pro­vid­ed in your GBP list­ing to pop­u­late Google Maps, the local pack, and local search results for rel­e­vant local queries. Accord­ing to Google, to enhance your local rank­ing, it is cru­cial to be the most rel­e­vant, promi­nent, and geo­graph­i­cal­ly close to the searcher. While the dis­tance fac­tor is beyond your con­trol once some­one ini­ti­ates a lawyer search, you can cer­tain­ly influ­ence your rel­e­vance and prominence.

To ensure rel­e­vance in your Google Busi­ness Pro­file, it is essen­tial for your law firm to present con­tent that aligns with what the searcher is seek­ing. If your legal prac­tice spe­cial­izes in per­son­al injury cas­es, it is cru­cial to incor­po­rate terms such as “per­son­al injury lawyer” in your GBP list­ing’s title and busi­ness descrip­tion. Addi­tion­al­ly, it is rec­om­mend­ed to include the following:

  • Rel­e­vant con­tent in reviews and on your website.
  • Con­sis­tent descrip­tions, address­es, and phone num­bers across local directories.

Getting Online Reviews

There’s no effec­tive local SEO for attor­neys with­out reviews. The more reviews a prac­tice has, the bet­ter its chances are for a high­er rank­ing. Fur­ther­more, reviews are the first thing users actu­al­ly read when look­ing for a poten­tial law firm to work with. 

How to get great reviews? While you can’t actu­al­ly force your clients to give you a pos­i­tive review, you can always aim to pro­vide first-class, client-cen­tered expe­ri­ences and ser­vices. Nat­u­ral­ly, you can ask for reviews from sat­is­fied clients, and you can also print small cards ask­ing for Google reviews and give them to your clients who vis­it your office. 

And while there will be good reviews, chances are, there will be neg­a­tives also. Don’t ignore them. Show your prospects that you equal­ly care about every per­son who turns to you for legal help. 

Engage with Your Audience on Social GMB and Social Media

Although social media does­n’t direct­ly impact search rank­ings, main­tain­ing a strong pres­ence on rel­e­vant plat­forms can boost aware­ness and indi­rect­ly sup­port law firm local SEO. Increas­ing your law fir­m’s vis­i­bil­i­ty among poten­tial clients can enhance its promi­nence in local rankings.

Addi­tion­al­ly, incor­po­rat­ing blog posts into your GBP list­ing helps engage your com­mu­ni­ty and improves the chances of appear­ing in rel­e­vant search­es. For more infor­ma­tion on lever­ag­ing posts for local busi­ness­es, refer to the com­pre­hen­sive Google sup­port arti­cle.

Optimize, Optimize, and Optimize

Your web­site’s con­tent and over­all per­for­mance, struc­ture, design, and nav­i­ga­tion will also pro­found­ly impact your rank­ings and local SEO efforts.

Apart from opti­miz­ing your page con­tent with key­words and phras­es with local search intent queries, also focus on the basics of tech­ni­cal SEO and opti­miza­tion rules that favor high-qual­i­ty content. 

You should­n’t for­get about those peo­ple who search local­ly on direc­to­ries and apps such as Yelp or Yel­low Pages. 

These pages can also show up in local search­es, so it makes sense to cov­er all of the sig­nif­i­cant legal and local direc­to­ries to cov­er even more dig­i­tal ground. Ensure that your pro­files are con­sis­tent across all plat­forms with up-to-date infor­ma­tion, such as a con­tact email address, phys­i­cal address, phone num­ber, and work hours.

Hand Writing SEO Strategy Concept

Embrace Screened Results 

Attor­neys who want to improve their local SEO pres­ence can also lever­age the pow­er of Google’s screened results to set them­selves apart. 

Screened results are a method of Google for pro­vid­ing direct results and reviews of attor­neys and bypass­ing oth­er ser­vices like Jus­tia, or Avvo, being a key tool in any SEO cam­paign that focus­es on a local area. 

Get­ting start­ed with Google Screened may take a while, and you might want to check if you meet their require­ments. While it’s a bit more time-con­sum­ing, it’s a worth­while invest­ment as it can help you dri­ve more traf­fic even if you don’t nec­es­sar­i­ly want to get start­ed with Google advertising. 

Here to Help

With­out a doubt, SEO is an excel­lent strat­e­gy to gain more busi­ness, but those who don’t actu­al­ly have expe­ri­ence with search engine opti­miza­tion may end up doing more harm to their online ecosys­tem and rep­u­ta­tion than good. As such, reach out to an expe­ri­enced dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing agency such as ours to ensure you’re get­ting the most out of your local SEO efforts.